The rain-hit Malaysian Grand Prix was won by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who managed to hold off Sergio Perez of Sauber. The Ferrari was not able to compete in the rain. However, the race was stopped following some heavy rain and when it resumed on a rain soaked track Alonso managed to build a sizable lead.

Perez managed to come close in the final laps until he ran wide and finished second. Lewis Hamilton was second with Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen finishing third and fourth respectively.

The downpour occurred after only six laps after which Alonso built up a lead of seven seconds in the wet conditions. However, as the track started to dry out that lead reduced to almost nothing as Perez closed the gap. Both drivers changed to sleek tyres with Alonso choosing “medium” and Perez choosing “hard” tyres.

Perez managed to catch the Spaniard within 10 laps. However a mistake by the Mexican running wide on turn 14 allowed the Ferrari driver to extend his lead once again back up to 5 seconds.
Alonso took victory number 28 of his career behind a fabulous list of drivers – Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell.

Alonso now leads the world championship by 5 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. However Perez took a lot of credit for his performance. The track was wet at the start of the race with most drivers opting for intermediate tyres. However as soon as the rain started to come down it was Perez who changed to wet tyres with most of the others changing on laps 4 or 5. He was then lying third behind the two McLaren drivers.

Eventually it was the experience of the Spaniard that told as he held onto his lead with Perez celebrating second place. Hamilton who finished in third place for the second time praised both drivers for a great race.